CriticalOtaku

Oh, Anno is just dragging out the dead horse to beat, we'll never get another ballin' Eva again-

Screenplay by Yoko Taro

Directors: Kazuya Tsurumaki & Toko Yatabe

Music: Keiichi Okabe (He did the music for the Nier & Drakenguard series, and Automata)

Animation Production: CloverWorks x Khara

I have no idea what to expect. I only played Nier: Automata, but admittedly it was pretty dang good. The only misgivings I might have stem from how Tsurumaki handled GQuuuuuuX, but to be fair G-Quacks wasn't written by Yoko motherfucking Taro so, y'know.

Release order is much better.

Naoko Yamada (K-On!, Hibike Euphonium) working with studio Science Saru (Dandandan) on a seemingly World Masterpiece Theatre inspired project will definitely get my attention

We're so back

The only good thing to come from Cyberpunk 2077 gets a new season. Imaishi isn't returning to direct, however Kai Ikarashi worked on a bunch of Trigger stuff and this project looks like it's his promotion to the director's chair. He did episode 6 in S1, which gave us this:

From the promo image it looks like we're following completely new characters? Looks dope

People are going to be divided on this gundam entry. To say it's rushed or that it's story beats are undeserved isn't wrong per se, but it isn't exactly right either- it's just paying off things from 40 years (and 100+ episodes) ago, just not things that are introduced or explained within this series. And that's a shame- with more episodes that could entirely have been avoided and this show made more self-contained, but from what I read so far in interviews I guess that wasn't the show Tsurumaki and Studio Khara had in mind when making it.

See, Tsurumaki is making a show that's almost entirely coasting on subtext and vibes, but unlike FLCL you need to have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of a fictional history that rivals the complexity of the real world, and I'm not sure that works at all- when something surprising or unexpected happened in FLCL you, as the audience, just kinda rolled with it, whereas here you kinda need to place everything either in a (fictional) socio-economic political context, OR you need to parse what the characters represents based on their archetype established in a series of 40 year old Japanese cartoons. Because at the end of the day, going "oh, there's a metatextual reason why I've written my main character to just be yanked around by events beyond her ken or understanding" doesn't exactly change the fact that following your main character getting yanked around isn't exactly compelling storytelling in-and-of itself. And that level of metatextual-ness is why I'm having a hard time evaluating GQuuuuuuX- as the target audience a lot of this show works for me because I can follow the same storytelling shortcuts Tsurumaki is taking (at least on some level), but I keep wondering if absent that preexisting context I would feel the same. I suspect not.

(Although, if I do have one complaint it is that the ending is entirely too hetero for my liking. WHERE'S MY SLOPPY CHARxCHALLIA MAKE OUT SESH KHARA! YOU HAD ONE JOB!)

What I can say with certainty, is that this show is a fitting love-letter to the Universal Century and Tomino's work in general, and a way for a character whose legacy, whose "curse of Gundam" was to be eternally fridged for the character development of the two male leads, to finally regain her agency and her dignity.

And in that, I can say that I'm more than a little moved.

I can't believe we went through all that build up just to off Gihren the same way Tarantino offed Hitler in Inglorious Bastards lmao.

One of the recurring themes in Gundam, as a franchise, has been about how the new world keeps getting strangled stillborn by those clinging to the old world, by the Oldtypes who keep forcing Newtypes into the pre-existing power structures and status quo, who insist on weaponising their abilities. That's kinda here in full force, complete with Chekov's guns and all. Kycillia's the usual fascist nonsense, but the show did a pretty good job of explaining it's allure through Nyaan's story- though it does make me sad to see home girl fall for it and pull the trigger on the Space WMD. Challia's perspective, at least, is grounded in his own personal trauma from having stared into the cold, unfeeling void of space- the closest to heroic we're going to get, he bequeaths on to Machu the freedom to act to prevent mass death. Beard Man is getting up there in favourite UC characters now.

(Khara you're not slick making the most queer coded guy in the show say that line. Subtext is for cowards, y'all better gimme sloppy Char x Challia make-out sesh by the finale)

Next week:

Compilation of redraw memes from GquuuuuuX ep 9, spoilers I guess:

Hexbear not letting me upload more pictures now, I have a bunch more

Maaaaaaaaan....

So far, I've been content to let Tsurumaki's pace carry me, but unlike FLCL which kinda had no expectations placed upon the viewer and the intended viewing experience was to just go with the flow, GQX is building upon decades of narrative and lore that at this point are kinda essential for context, so as of right now even I'm starting to feel how crazy fast we're hitting plot beats out here.

I mean, the entire episode is about Lalah Sune, who she is as a character and what she represents thematically to the entire series, but if you haven't seen OG Gundam thru Char's Counterattack (because her relationship with Amuro and Char is an important aspect of her character) her appearance here is just going to be a weird catalyst for Machu's character growth and probably very confusing.

She looks great in GQX's animation style tho

But having said that, doing The Man in the High Castle with UC0079 Gundam is so insanely ballsy and ambitious, I'm down for the ride.

Hooboy another build-up episode- first half is the remaining 0079 era bits from the movie with Char trying to kill Kycilia with a big asteroid provided by the Federation (the more things change, the more things stay the same it seems). There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it freeze frame of Lalah stopping Char from shooting Sayla in Newtype space just before the Axis Shock/Zeknova happens that I didn't catch in the movie, but it's here in the show.

Overall I'd say this entire sequence felt better with the movies chronology, since it set up the big mystery of this timeline (what happened to Char?) and highlighted the danger of the Zeknova. I guess this was as good a place as any to put this tho, because we really couldn't continue the back half here without this context.

I'm not going to get too deep into the back half- a lot happens here. (And a distracting amount of Eva references.) But I do want to highlight a smaller character scene/detail that's only possible because we're playing in a franchise with 46 years of material-

Nyaan is a refugee from Side 2. Side 2 was the colony that Zeon gassed and then dropped on the Earth, the event that kicks off the One Year War.

That dinner scene between her and Kycillia would be like if George Bush gave a home cooked meal to an Iraqi kid, promising asylum and college entry if they just signed up for the US Military to test their latest weapon systems.

The entire back half, Nyaan has a deep-seated sadness within her, almost like her soul is being weighed down by gravity.

Oh shit is that my favourite Gulp Shitto, Quattro Bajeena!?

(Have some Kycillia Obaa-chan cute fanart.)

Wow, what an episode.

The episode title references "The Plot to Assassinate Girhen", a spin-off manga series for the OG Gundam, which in turn is a reference to the movie "The Plot to Assassinate Hitler".

No robot fight, and most of it was exposition and table setting, but this is the good kind of exposition and table setting cos I can't wait till next episode to see how everything comes together for the climax. Last week I complained about too much teen angst and not enough politics, but this week I'm practically drowning in it. I'm not even mad that Kycillia's cameo wasn't even 2 seconds lol. Two whole Zeon factions (Kycillia and Gihren), Side 6 itself and the motherfucking TITANS?!?

I didn't expect them to show up at all- repurposed in this timeline as the Space CIA (the official description on the show's website for Bask Om is that he is "Preparing to create a Far-right Special Forces unit" lmao). I am a bit worried if all the super deep-cuts to Gundam lore is alienating new viewers (Gates Capa? Really?), but so far it's relatively self-evident in-context and I think everything going on with the main trio + Challia is compelling enough (Goddam Mr. Bull certainly knows how to make an entrance).

Speaking of the main trio- I'm really happy with how they decided to handle Machu + Nyaan. Machu screaming "That's my space!" is probably the rawest, most realistic thing a teenager could say there, and I'm glad they didn't drag out the interpersonal conflict beyond this episode, because while they might not be overly interested in politics, politics has certainly taken an interest in them.

we Eva now

Sidenote: there are college entrance exam books alongside immigration procedure manuals on Nyaan's bookshelf in her apartment, so we probably know her motivation now (thank you Japanese speaking fans for pointing that out)

Next week: In Universe in the OG Gundam timeline, the Second Neo-Zeon War (the events of Char's Counterattack) is also known as Char's Rebellion.